Pasquini, B. v. Fairmount Behavioral Health System

2020 Pa. Super. 71
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 25, 2020
Docket2017 EDA 2019
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2020 Pa. Super. 71 (Pasquini, B. v. Fairmount Behavioral Health System) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pasquini, B. v. Fairmount Behavioral Health System, 2020 Pa. Super. 71 (Pa. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

J-A06039-20

2020 PA Super 71

BRIANNA PASQUINI : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : : FAIRMOUNT BEHAVIORAL HEALTH : SYSTEM & UHS OF FAIRMOUNT, : INC. : No. 2017 EDA 2019 : Appellants

Appeal from the Order Entered May 14, 2019 In the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County Civil Division at No(s): 170802950

BEFORE: STABILE, J., KING, J., and STEVENS, P.J.E.*

OPINION BY STEVENS, P.J.E.: March 25, 2020

Fairmount Behavioral Health System & UHS of Fairmount, Inc.

(Appellants) appeal from the Order entered on May 14, 2019, in the Court of

Common Pleas of Philadelphia County granting Brianna Pasquini’s (Appellee)

Motion to Strike Objections to Requests for Admission and requiring Appellants

to admit or deny whether they knew a non-party patient was a registered sex

offender in January of 2016. After careful review, we affirm.

The trial court set forth the relevant procedural history herein as follows:

PROCEDURAL HISTORY On August 29, 2017, [Appellee] filed the instant litigation alleging a personal injury action arising out of the preventable rape and sexual assault suffered by Appellee while she was receiving inpatient addiction treatment at [Appellants’] facility. Appellee alleges in January, 2016, she was raped and assaulted ____________________________________________

* Former Justice specially assigned to the Superior Court. J-A06039-20

by Montezz Hewlett, a fellow patient at the facility who, at the time, had a documented history of violent sexual crimes- including a rape conviction- and was a registered sex offender. Appellee alleges that Appellants knew or should have known of Hewlett's history and sex offender status, yet they allowed him unfettered and unmonitored access to Appellee, resulting in her rape and sexual assault. While conducting discovery, Appellee served a request for admissions stating: “It is admitted that Defendant, Fairmont Behavioral Health System, knew that Mr. Hewlett was a convicted sex offender in January 2016.” Mr. Hewlett's status as a sex offender is publicly available information via the internet due to the requirements of Pennsylvania's Registration of Sexual Offenders Act (“Megan's Law”), 42 Pa.C.S.A. §9799.10, et seq. Appellants objected, claiming that the information sought was “privileged” because Hewlett was a patient at their facility. Appellee moved to strike this objection, noting the request sought Appellants’ knowledge of publicly available information. Following briefing and oral argument before this [c]ourt, Appellee’s motion to strike Appellants’ objection was granted, requiring Appellants to respond to the request for admission. Appellants, in response, filed a motion for reconsideration, or in the alternative, certification to appeal the May 14, 2019 Order. Appellants also filed two motions seeking to stay the case. Appellants argued that responding to the request would require disclosing privileged information about Hewlett, therefore, the Order should be vacated. This [c]ourt denied all of Appellants’ motions. On June 12, 2019, Appellants filed a Notice of Appeal, claiming the May 14 order is collateral under Pa.R.A.P. 313(b) because it violates the confidentiality provisions of the Mental Health Procedures Act, 50 P.S. §7101, et seq. and the psychiatrist -patient privilege. Subsequently the Superior Court denied Appellee's Motion to Quash.[1] ____________________________________________

1 The trial court’s assertion is partially correct. On August 5, 2019, Appellee filed her Application to Quash with this Court, and Appellants answered the Application on August 19, 2019. In a Per Curiam Order entered on September 6, 2019, this Court denied Appellee’s motion to quash without prejudice to Appellee’s right to raise the issue again in her appellate brief or in a new application that may be filed after the appeal has been assigned to a merits panel. Appellee has not done so.

-2- J-A06039-20

Trial Court Opinion, filed 9/26/19, at 1-2.

On July 8, 2019, Appellants filed their Concise Statement of Errors

Complained of on Appeal which is a four-page narrative. Therein, Appellants

contend they cannot readily discern the basis for the trial court’s decision, and

therefore, they “generally challenge” the court’s finding that they must

respond to Appellee’s request for admission at issue. Concise Statement of

Errors Complained of on Appeal, 7/8/19, at 2. Appellants further state that

“this statement of errors includes every subsidiary issue [Appellants] raised

in [their] Response to Appellee’s Motion to Strike and in [their] Motion for

Reconsideration submitted following the entry of the May 14, 2019, Order.”

Id.2 On September 26, 2019, the trial court filed is Opinion pursuant to

Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a).

____________________________________________

2 In light of Appellants’ deficient concise statement, we could find any claims raised on appeal waived for failure to present them properly in the concise statement in violation of the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure. As this Court recently stated:

[I]ssues not raised in a Rule 1925(b) statement will be deemed waived for review. An appellant's concise statement must properly specify the error to be addressed on appeal. In other words, the Rule 1925(b) statement must be “specific enough for the trial court to identify and address the issue [an appellant] wishe[s] to raise on appeal.” Commonwealth v. Reeves, 907 A.2d 1, 2 (Pa.Super. 2006), appeal denied, 591 Pa. 712, 919 A.2d 956 (2007). “[A] [c]oncise [s]tatement which is too vague to allow the court to identify the issues raised on appeal is the functional equivalent of no [c]oncise [s]tatement at all.” Id. The court's review and legal analysis can be fatally impaired when the court

-3- J-A06039-20

In their brief, Appellants present the following Statement of the

Questions Involved:

1. Does a request for admission asking a mental health treatment provider to reveal information learned from a patient during treatment violate the Pennsylvania psychotherapist-patient privilege, 42 PA. STAT. AND CONS. STAT. ANN.§ 5944 (West 2019)?

2. Does a request for admission asking a party to reveal the contents of privileged medical records violate the Pennsylvania Mental Health Procedures Act, 50 PA. STAT. AND CONS. STAT. ANN. § 7111 (West 2019)?

Brief of Appellants at 3.

It is axiomatic that “[a]n appeal lies only from a final order, unless

permitted by rule or statute.” Stewart v. Foxworth, 65 A.3d 468, 471

(Pa.Super. 2013). As previously noted, this Court’s September 6, 2019, Per

has to guess at the issues raised. Thus, if a concise statement is too vague, the court may find waiver. Commonwealth v. Scott, 212 A.3d 1094, 1112 (Pa.Super. 2019) (citation omitted).

Commonwealth v. Sexton, 2019 WL 5540999, at *4 n. 3 (Pa.Super. Oct. 28, 2019).

Herein, Appellants’ inarticulate framing of their concise statement and attempt to incorporate “subsidiary issues” arguably resulted in a concise statement that is not specific enough for the trial court to identify and consider the related issues Appellants have raised on appeal. However, because this has not fatally impaired the trial court's legal analysis in its Rule 1925(a) Opinion, we will not deem the two issues Appellants include in their appellate brief to be waived for failure to preserve them properly in the concise statement.

-4- J-A06039-20

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pasquini, B. v. Fairmount Behavioral Health System
2020 Pa. Super. 71 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2020)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2020 Pa. Super. 71, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pasquini-b-v-fairmount-behavioral-health-system-pasuperct-2020.